Ash
by Chrys-DASL
Summary: When a huge earthquake hits out west, the world learns that Yellowstone National Park's supervolcano is set to erupt within days. Soon the world is put in a state of chaos as the ash sweeps the globe. Without sunlight and with the air too polluted to breathe, can anyone survive? For my new Disasters series. Rated T for dark themes. R&R.
1. Chapter 1

ASH

CHAPTER ONE

The news reports weren't what they expected. I mean, they were studying geology in their seventh grade class, somehow all together still after these few yet long years. But you never expected the news headlines to match what you were doing in class, even though that's often how it went. Now the seventh graders of Grebe Middle were facing this challenge, though none of them could believe it.

Their parents said they'd been expecting The Big One since even they were children, since their parents were children. "The West Coast is due for The Big One," they'd say, but people were beginning to think that was never going to happen. Earthquakes like that happened in other places, like Japan or Ecuador. They killed people in those other places, caused tsunamis in other places. They didn't happen in America.

Yet when they turned on the news that night, some during dinner, others before, and some after, they realized The Big One had happened, an 8.7-magnitude earthquake centered just east of the San Andreas fault line. Small towns were devastated either from the violent shaking or what came afterwards—gas line explosions, fires, and even a flood as one town's water tower came crashing down, the water going everywhere and taking several unsuspecting people with it. The death toll wasn't as high as experts expected, but the experts were talking about something else:

"Tonight as word comes of a large earthquake in California, scientists who dedicate themselves to studying Yellowstone National Park have ordered an evacuation of the park and surrounding areas, citing excess seismic activity they feel is linked to the fabled Yellowstone National Park supervolcano."

That word, "fabled," stuck out to a lot of people. A lot of people felt the supervolcano was a myth, but a lot of people believed in science as well, especially the Grebe Middle School seventh grade geology class. As they reported to class the next day, their teacher had the word written on the board, SUPERVOLCANO. Everyone was asked to take out a piece of paper and write their thoughts.

The teacher had to explain nothing. If you didn't watch the news when the story first broke, you'd somehow found out about it. #supervolcano had been trending since the story broke, but it was a 50/50 battle online between those who thought the scientists were exaggerating, that it was just another earthquake building or the Earth's crust reacting to the initial quake. But the other side felt this was an impending disaster. As students raised their hands, it was clear they felt this was an important disaster, something that people should take seriously. And most importantly, something people should prepare for.

"I think areas within a hundred miles of the supervolcano should be evacuated," Brain began, adding, "and in the meantime, the world needs to start preparing for several months, if not years of darkness, from the ash."

"But won't the entire continent explode?" Muffy countered from another table. "I mean, I know you're right about the ash, but would we even have to worry about it? Won't we all be dead?"

The teacher was about to step in, but Buster stepped in instead, "No, there are mountain ranges between here and the Midwest. That's enough structure to keep anything back, not that it would get that far. I think the Rockies would hold it back."

Muffy scoffed, hating to be countered (especially from a guy like Buster), "What do you know?"

"Actually, he has a valid point, Miss Crosswire," the teacher smiled, happy to see his planned lesson going so well. "Scientists feel most of the energy will only hit those northwestern mountains, and it would not expand too far through the Midwest. Either way, the Appalachians offer enough structure to keep it from spreading. As Brain suggested, we'll only have the aftermath to focus on."

"How bad is volcanic ash?" Arthur asked, his hand midair, though he spoke without being called on.

"Would anyone like to take a guess?" the teacher question.

Sue Ellen raised her hand and spoke, "I've read about theories saying ash is what really killed the dinosaurs. A meteor might have hit, but it was really the ash and debris filling the atmosphere, making it cold and hard to breathe, that killed the dinosaurs."

"Exactly. The ash, dust, and other debris goes into the atmosphere. The larger pieces rain down from the sky, probably damaging buildings and homes in the Midwest but this is not the biggest threat. The smaller particles get stuck until they can dissipate naturally. In small events, this takes maybe a month at most. But in an event like this—"

"It could last so long we go the way of the dinosaur?" Buster asked with a fearful tone. Brain muttered, "way of the _dodo_ , not dinosaur," but Buster's comment was worded the way it was meant to be.

The teacher smiled, "Well what do you think? That's the point of this lesson."

"I think we're all in trouble, but I don't think we're going to die," Francine called out. "I mean, we can wear masks so the dust and ash doesn't hurt us, and we should have enough of a food supply of everything to make up for what we'll lose during the blast. I just really don't think it's going to be a major issue. It'll suck, but we'll be fine."

Sue Ellen shook her head, "I think we're in real trouble. If it only takes a year, yeah, we'll be fine. But two years? No, we definitely don't have enough for that if we can't replace the food. And we won't be able to, not easily. Planes won't be able to fly, and travel will be heavily impacted for other reasons. People are going to starve somewhere. It's just a matter of where."

As the bell rang, the teacher told them all this was a "wait and see" situation, but between his in-class discussion and the debates playing out nearly everywhere one turned, people were becoming more and more scared about what was to come.


	2. Chapter 2

CHAPTER TWO

When Sue Ellen got home, she found her mother locked away in the attic with her painting supplies. There was a stained glass window there that she said gave her new perspective on the world as the things on the other side of the glass took on different colors—green, red, blue, and gold. Sue Ellen liked to go up and look out it too, but she knew not to intrude on her mother's personal space, especially not during these troubling times.

She didn't tell anyone, but her father was out west at the moment attending a conference in Seattle, Washington. He'd felt the megaquake, as the news now called it, that hit in California as the shockwaves moved up the west coast. He'd even felt some of the aftershocks too, but everyone told him he was safe. He'd said that in his morning phone call, made at three a.m. his time—"I'm okay."

But as Sue Ellen walked the empty lower floor and thought about the situation at hand, she knew they weren't okay, especially him. He was too close to Yellowstone National Park. He'd even been able to see it from the plane as he flew into Seattle's nation airport, another landmark a radio tour had pointed out to him through an onboard channel. He'd taken the flight before, as this was an annual conference, but this time felt magical.

Now Sue Ellen knew why. She wanted him to take the next flight out, but he wasn't given much of a choice. The scientists who oversaw the supervolcano had proven their point, and evacuations were taking place throughout the danger zone, anywhere within a two-hundred-fifty-mile radius. He was within that area, but he had to wait for an official plane to take him and the other ambassadors back east to safety. She'd heard the headline at school and saw the message on her father's social media pages when she got out of class—he had to wait to get out, and Sue Ellen knew that waiting was a problem.

After her geology lesson, which was supposed to be about plate tectonics instead of supervolcanoes, all she could picture were the satellite images that would come from the event, tracking the ash cloud across the planet as it suffocated life out of everyone. If you weren't blown up in the initial event, you'd slowly suffocate to death or face famine, just as the dinosaurs once did.

"I didn't know you were home from school," Mrs. Armstrong called, snapping Sue Ellen out of her thoughts. Almost instinctively, she ran to her mom and hugged her tightly. Mrs. Armstrong laughed, "I'd ask what this is about, but I think I know," she said, kissing her daughter's forehead to get her attention, "Listen to me, Sue Ellen, and listen very, very closely. Your father will be okay. He just sent me a text that he's on a private jet with the others headed to Washington D.C. He'll then take the train like always, and I'll pick him up later tonight as you get ready for bed."

Sue Ellen hugged her again, this time because of the news, but she knew she wouldn't sleep until she knew her father was safe. She'd fake it, maybe, but that meant she'd be home alone. She was reaching that age, and ever since she'd turned eleven, her parents would leave her at home for the more boring events. Now for the most exciting one, she was supposed to stay because of the time. She didn't care how late it was, but she knew to stay put and not to argue.

It was almost midnight when she heard the lock click. Sue Ellen sat up in bed, where she'd been laying in the dark for almost three hours. She couldn't read or do homework or sleep, so she just waited, and as she rushed downstairs to greet her parents, she knew why.

"You should've seen it!" her father exclaimed, taking Sue Ellen in his arms. "It exploded just as we got out of its way. It was like a scene from a movie, the plume of ash and fire spewing into the air—"

"It's all over the news, complete with images, but he tells it best. He really does," Mrs. Armstrong grinned.

Sue Ellen couldn't believe it. She'd kept radios and televisions off just in case the supervolcano went off and blew her father away before her eyes. Somehow she must've known it would happen that night, but she was too thankful to see him again to care whether or not she predicted it. She hugged him, then the small family moved into the kitchen for some hot chocolate. They turned on a radio, listening to the reports. Evacuations didn't come soon enough, so hundreds, if not thousands, of people were presumed dead. But her father was alive, so Sue Ellen was fine with this loss.

But they all knew it wasn't the supervolcano itself that would cause most of the issues. It was the "what's to come," the aftermath of it all, and scientists were already tracking the ash cloud. By morning, the plume would reach Elwood City, plunging it into a state of half-darkness, half-light. It was a terrifying effect, one mostly reserved for horror movies. But it was their new life, and they'd have to find a way to cope.


	3. Chapter 3

CHAPTER THREE

Anyone who didn't know what was happening thought kids were dressing for blizzards in the middle of October. Instead they were covering themselves in jackets and scarves, hats and pullovers, to keep the ash from coating their clothes. Tall boots were worn by everyone to protect their pants as best as they could during their walks to school.

But everything ended up coated in ash. Houses were coated as doors opened and air vents pushed the dust inside. Car interiors were coated as people turned on their vent systems. Schools became inundated from a combination of these things, plus the pedestrian students, entering the building covered in the grey ickyness. That's what everyone called it, but the tone was playful. For now this was nothing, just a new adventure for everyone.

As the Lakewood crew made their way through their morning classes, they wanted to get to geology so they could actually talk about the event without being scolded. Math teachers, English teachers, and history teachers could care less about the event during their lessons, and the extracurricular teachers saw it as a hindrance (students were trapped in the gym, unable to play their instruments, and unable to make art because of the ash. And gym activity was limited due to the dust floating through the air, making heavy breathing impossible for any student who already struggled to breathe). In science class, they could really discuss the issue, and their teacher encouraged it.

At the beginning of geology, students were given an index card. They were charged to write down one question, one statement, or even a few words for the class to discuss. They were supposed to be relevant to the event, and as he thumbed through the completed cards, he felt the class had adequately stuck to his design. He fanned out the cards and held them out to Jenna, who picked one out and handed it to him without looking.

"Alright, first discussion of the day. Ah, a health question with morbid consequences," the teacher smiled, directing the question to the class: Are people with asthma all going to die? The teacher looked around the room, "Who are our asthma sufferers? Buster, George, and Alex. Alright, the three of you are the most at risk to have respiratory problems because of the ash. You're already prone to problems. But what are some of the ways we can prevent respiratory illnesses among everyone?"

"Masks, scarves, anything that keeps the particles from getting into your lungs," Francine responded. Everyone else nodded in agreement.

The teacher nodded, "In this particular situation, that is your best solution. Air purifiers used to protect you, but now the ash will inundate the filters, and the supply of those filters will decrease. In fact, they are now limited to hospitals. So, you have to use something else. Masks, scarves, even wet rags at all times, no matter where you are. In fact, all three of you better have them in class tomorrow or we'll going to have problems," he said, pointing a finger at them playfully, though his tone confirmed he meant it.

"But what about the long term?" Buster asked. "That's why I wrote that question. I wanted to know if we'd all die in the end."

"Death isn't a guarantee in an event like this," the teacher replied, leaning against Buster's table and speaking in a low, friendly tone. "While many have died already, they passed because of the explosion. There were people in the Midwest crushed by the debris or caught up in storms created by the ash clouds. These are typical, but we're in Elwood City on the east coast. We don't have that problem. Air quality is an issue, so you need to wear masks at all times, even at night, to protect yourself. Change them often. I'd have no more than five with you during a school day, and you should change them out every two to three hours."

"And that will make breathing easier for all of us?" Muffy questioned. The teacher nodded, fanning out the cards in front of Maria as if to say "Let's move on now."

After reading the card to himself, the teacher announced it to the class: How quickly will famine set in? He opened the question to the crowd, and Brain immediately chipped in:

"This is more of a question of economics than science," he began, adding, "While some crops and food supplies will be ruined during this initial event, the lasting ability of those crops will rely on a supply-and-demand system."

"I agree with you, but let's make it about science. What can you all tell me then?" he asked, looking at everyone but Brain in an attempt to get more answers.

Binky spoke up, "Scientists could come up with solutions that allow us to grow food in different environments. They've already done that with, what's it called?...hydroponics?"

"Yes, what a sciency answer," the teacher smiled, "You are very much correct. Hydroponics allows people to grow food with limited resources, and many believe this is the solution to growing food and producing oxygen that will allow us to go further when we begin exploring space. In situations like these, we will definitely put hydroponics to the test. Buster, does the community garden use hydroponics?"

"That's what that's called?" Buster asked with a confused tone.

Muffy scoffed, "He probably doesn't know."

"No, I do know," Buster argued. "Once the city built the greenhouse so we could have fresh fruits and vegetables year-round, they decided a hydroponics system could help us if we were ever to have a drought like in California. That's how we do most of our growing now. I just didn't know what it was called. One of the neighbors just called it Tubular, and I went with it."

"It is very tubular," the teacher agreed as the bell rang, "We'll continue tomorrow!" he called as the class fled the room.

Some students were put at ease by discussing supervolcano-related issues in class, but others weren't. Some were growing antsy, namely those who knew what could happen. Brain, Sue Ellen, and Muffy were just three of those students, and as they went about their day, their minds swarmed with negative thoughts about what was to come.


	4. Chapter 4

CHAPTER FOUR

"Daddy, are we going to die?" Muffy asked at dinner. Since coming home from school, she'd worn masks for every second, but now it sat clumped in her hand as she ate dinner with her father.

Ed scowled at his daughter, "Of course not, Muffin. Your mother and I would never let anything happen to you or your brother. Chip is coming home, you know."

Chip had been traveling for the last few years, and Muffy knew he'd fled the northwest as soon as the first earthquake hit, ending up in eastern Canada to meet up with friends. Now that he was heading home, Muffy felt relieved, even though her and her brother rarely got along anymore. She was jealous of him for traveling, and he never clicked with her whenever they were home because they rarely talked. Having him home would be a release for her mind, though it still ran negative outlooks.

Sue Ellen was having a similar problem. Having her father home was the most rewarding feeling she'd ever had, but she still worried about the future. Would there be famine? Would people die from asthma attacks as the ash grew thicker?

The town had already grown darker throughout the day, and by noon, the streetlights were on across the city. People knew because of news reports that artificial light was the only light they would have for the next few months, if not the next few years, so they had to get used to it.

But it wasn't easy. The situation was still new, so some people were still enjoying it. Kids drew in the ash that clung to everything, making pictures where they never could before. Teens took full advantage too, making obscene pictures on windows as they walked around town. Adults were furious, but there was no clearing the mess. It was here to stay, and they got to enjoy earlier bedtimes as the darkness confused internal clocks. Dinner was at four in many homes and bedtime at six as night fell completely, an hour before usual. It started as an accident, but they all knew this would be the norm within days.

Fashion changed immediately, and stores found their shelves rid of scarves for the coming fall season, as well as masks of all types. Temperatures were already cooler than usual, so jackets were the next target. Grocery stories saw a spike in wintertime drink sales—hot chocolate, cider mixes, and an increase in requests for eggnog. Christmas music started in some stores as they embraced the cooler temperatures, the ashy wonderland created by the greyness outside.

People were trying their best to enjoy it, but people like Muffy and Brain had to think rationally—they knew something was bound to go wrong eventually. Sue Ellen and Francine decided to embrace the situation and move forward as best as they could, namely because their family was safe…for the time being. Bitzi was already beginning to worry as Buster began needed breathing treatments twice a day, once in the morning and once before bed. Health issues were the current concern, and a rightful one, because the first deaths were coming as people had asthma attacks on the streets and died wherever they collapsed.


	5. Chapter 5

CHAPTER FIVE

The unit changed quickly in geology class when people started dying from the ash, when produce disappeared because grocery stores couldn't guarantee their freshness because of the inundation of ash over every surface. Instead of starting the class with index cards and moving from there, the lessons went back to where they were. There was a hasty pop quiz on plate tectonics, then a long slideshow with tons of notes about the different types of rock.

Questions came up about supervolcanoes, about what was happening with the outside world, but he now refused to answer them. It was as if the ominous headlines took the fun out of the situation, and the extra cleaning didn't help either. People couldn't give up their clean homes and businesses, and many worked tirelessly trying to keep the ash out to no avail. Mrs. Turner closed the library for a day, for example, in an attempt to vacuum the place clean. But a package delivery filled the first floor with ashy boot prints, and after a short walk across the floor, she realized half her work had been erased. She gave up, but she knew the place couldn't get dirty because the items inside would be ruined.

Museums, art exhibits, and computer cafés had the same problem. They couldn't let their exhibits or technology be ruined by the ash, so they had to shut their doors. A field trip DW's class was supposed to take to a museum in Metropolis was cancelled, reminding the fourth graders that Elwood City wasn't the only place being buried with ash, that other places had the same problem. Video from the Midwest showed ash blizzards and darker skies, but the kids didn't realize that sort of thing was going to happen everywhere until it happened to them.

Two weeks after the supervolcano exploded, planes could no longer fly because of low visibility and ash interference with the engines, which almost caused several accidents as they stalled midflight. Museums, art exhibits, libraries, private collections, and some stores had closed their doors, refusing to reopen until "all that dirty ash was gone," but there was no getting rid of it. Ash was everywhere, and two weeks in, people were beginning to notice it in the water.

"There is nothing we can do about the ash in the water. Treatment plants are working as hard as they can, and the water is safe to drink. You might not want to wash your wedding dress in it, but it is safe for consumption," Elwood City's mayor assured them.

But the issue was a topic of discussion in health class for Arthur and the others. What sort of toxins were in the ash? A researcher in Topeka, Kansas noted several radioactive pieces of debris that had landed around his town, one at his home and the other through the window of his office. He and others were concerned that the explosion had pulled material from deep within the earth's crust that they didn't know about until now, when it was out and available to hurt people. This was a terrifying prospect for everyone—while people with existing respiratory conditions were already struggling, soon everyone could have problems associated with the volcano and its effects.

As the world debated the topic, it was announced that the ash had finally reached back around, that Hawaii now had dim sunlight that was becoming dimmer by the day. Scientists knew this would happen, but the people who were barely clinging to hope as it was found themselves rolling in despair. Suicides rose, as did murder-suicides. There was a family of four in New Hampshire whose mother killed them all by poisoning their food, leaving a note in the ash on her stovetop saying she couldn't live like this, and she'd make sure her family didn't either.

Sunlight was now a memory for many people of the world, but it was headlines like this, of needless death, that showed people how dark things were really becoming. Add in the natural deaths—the jet crash not discovered because the volcano sent the plane four hundred miles off course, the falling debris deaths, the asthma attacks, and so on—and people were losing hope and fast. There was nothing that could raise their spirits. They would keep pushing forward, but more and more people were deciding they couldn't, and several of them decided to take matters into their own hands.


	6. Chapter 6

CHAPTER SIX

 _One Month Later_

A month only made things worse. There were two more eruptions, a small one that only caused some minor ash spewing and a larger one that packed the power of a large earthquake when it went off. That larger blast sent more ash into the air than the smaller one and less than the larger one, but it was enough to turn Elwood City into a cold, dark, and miserable place, much as the Midwest had been all along.

The new game at school was to speculate where there was still sun and warmth. Ladonna wanted her home state to still be clear, and because it was further south, the air was a little more clear than where they were now, but Louisiana and the rest of the South was just as covered in ash. Emily thought that France might still be clear because she'd spent so much time there, but satellite pictures pulled up in class revealed that was not the case. So people started guessing about countries further and further east, starting with Turkey and ending with China or Japan.

But even Australia had some degree of coverage, making their summer the mildest on record while the United States and other northern hemisphere location faced an abysmal winter. It was November now, and snow had come piling down on the frosty landscape. The ash made the snow so dark grey that it was almost black, and the frost did nothing to help. Buster said it looked like they were trapped in an old newspaper, and his mother couldn't argue with him, namely because both were so sick.

The air quality across the world was at a horrible level, so much so that officials estimated five thousand people a day died simply because breathing was too difficult. Asthma attacks were the top killers, but next were the respiratory infections that came from breathing in the ash. Next in line were the heart attacks that came for various reasons. People with respiratory illnesses were most likely to have them, along with older people who were already at risk before the supervolcano erupted. But young people with no risk factors were having them too.

One day after school, Francine and her family got a call from Catherine, who was attending college in Metropolis. One of her classmates dropped dead from a heart attack during her physics lecture, and people were beginning to worry that teens and children could be next.

"The amount of effort it takes to navigate our new, ashy world is enough to put various groups at excess risk, none more so than the elderly and the youngest people in this country," an analyst on the nightly news reported, her quotes appearing across all local and major news networks. She continued, "Despite how long this may continue, older people and younger people need to consider remaining in their homes for the duration."

FOR THE DURATION stuck with people. No one knew how much longer that would be. It had already been a month, but because of the extra eruptions, people wondered how much longer things could go on. Before the extra blasts of ash, scientists predicted it would take a year for the ash to slowly trickle down, mixing with rain water or snow or becoming absorbed in the oceans and lakes of the planet. Now no one knew what to think, one because there were extra eruptions, and two because they knew to expect even more eruptions.

People yearned to discuss the issue, and while they kept quiet about it at home, at work or at school, people were desperate for answers, none more so than Grebe Middle's seventh grade class. Like always, the topic was off limits everywhere except their geology class, but their teacher had changed. He was once open to the issue and eager to discuss it, rearranging his lessons so they could talk only about the supervolcano and what was going to happen to their world. Now he refused to discuss it. Period.

Buster raised his hand first just as the lesson began. As it hovered there, he began wheezing so much that he had to lower it, a trend among him and the other students with asthma. His best buddy Arthur decided to raise his hand next, and despite making eye contact with the teacher, he continued his lecture on the hardness of gems and how to test said hardness.

Finally others raised their hands, one by one, until the only students without a hand in the air were those wheezing or coughing from their illnesses. And even then he continued lecturing.

After exchanging glances, Brain and some others stood at once. Slowly the others joined him, including Buster, who used Arthur's arm to help him stand, another common occurrence. Finally, after another minute of talking, the teacher stopped talking and pacing, crossing his arms in a defiant stance as he looked over his class.

"You want me to discuss something I've already refused to talk about. That's why I haven't called on anyone, and that's why I won't. Sit down or you all get a write-up," he said with such ferocity that some people shifted uncomfortably towards their chairs.

Brain shook his head, "No, you must discuss this issue with us. No one else will, not even our parents. We have to know how long this could last, how bad it could get. The temperature is already twenty degrees below normal. How long before it's fifty degrees below normal? Will it stay that cold when spring comes? Will spring comes? We have to know. Our very lives are at stake," Brain demanded with the others nodding behind him.

"Don't you think I would discuss it if I had any answers? For one, I'm a middle school science teacher who got most of his college credits at a community college while living in his parents' basement. Does that really make me qualified to discuss these sorts of things? Not hardly.

"Secondly, I was reprimanded for my earlier lessons because my department chair, the vice-principals, the principal, and members of the school board don't want any of us, high school or otherwise—no matter what the education level—to discuss what's going on with you. Normal is the new motive. Normal is the new way of life, no matter how abnormal things become.

"Lastly, I don't know. I never knew. None of us ever did, and none of us ever will. Science is great for explaining what's already there, what's already happened, and what can be repeated. That's why we know so much about the elements but so little about life at the bottom of the sea. We've been working with the elements since the earliest centuries. We've yet to safely travel to the bottom of the sea, and our probes aren't faring much better.

"This volcano, supervolcano, whatever you want to call it, is a one-time deal. Nothing like this will ever happen again during your lifetime, your children's lifetimes, or their grandchildren's lifetimes. This simply won't happen again for centuries, if not longer, if it ever happens again. We've had volcanos, regular little children's toys that diverted flights and caused a few deaths. This is different," he ranted, looking over the class with a gaze almost as cold as the bitter November wind outside.

Sue Ellen stepped forward, "So we're all going to die from this? Every last one of us? Is this going to kill us?"

"It's going to kill several people, just as it already has. If you want my opinion, I say one out of every three, four, or five of you will be dead before the sun really comes out again. But it's not my place. If you want answers, go online like everyone else. In my classroom, and every other classroom in the district, we all have to be Normal.

"So back to the scale. How do we test the hardness of a ruby based on what I've already said?" he questioned. The class gradually sat down, but the question was unanswered by any of the students. The teacher provided the answers and talked nonstop until the end of class, but the group had to wonder if his miniature rant, brought on by their full protest on being ignored, would be his final stand.


	7. Chapter 7

CHAPTER SEVEN

They found him in his bathroom, a gun on the floor five feet away. He hadn't been to school in three days, and there was a weekend between that. Five full days of no contact, so the school called the police, and the police sent an officer. The scene didn't faze him, not the way it once had. Now that the ash was here, the sun was gone, and the temperatures were barely above freezing at high noon, suicides were common.

The students weren't surprised either. As Arthur and the gang went into their geology class for another day with a substitute, an old man as grey as this new world rambled on tangents relating to geology rather than teach it (as he was a retired college geology professor, not ever a middle school teacher and not active for five years or more). They were used to this guy now, used to the idea that their old teacher disappeared after his rant.

They didn't expect the suicide, the noteless gunshot that should've stirred his subdivision's neighbors but didn't. When they heard "suicide," they weren't surprised because that was becoming common. But people usually left notes, sometimes written on paper, sometimes written on the ash that now settled everywhere, even inside cabinets rarely opened. Wherever there was ash, there was a place to write something, a miracle in the old days that was now so commonplace that teens quit drawing obscene figures and four-letter words and kept to their studies. Their geology teacher drew nothing, wrote nothing, and said nothing. It was like the ash choked him out of this world, covered him, and caused him to disappear just like everything else.

As the students walked home, they began to think about what their world was coming to. The ash was so thick most days now that engines couldn't run properly. Furnaces acted up daily, so many people were burning fires in their fireplaces or leaving their stoves on all the time, the doors slightly open in an attempt to warm the room. The Read's were doing that now, sleeping in the kitchen, where David and Arthur pulled the family's mattresses into one mega mattress after moving the breakfast table out of the room. How long before the power was affected too or the gas lines so even this became an impossibility?

Buster's fear was different but just as terrifying of the prospect of freezing to death. What if he could no longer breathe? What if he just tried to take a breath through his triple layer of masks, couldn't, and fell over dead? What if his mother died? What if his asthma medication went away, as the cost had tripled and the supply had dwindled to almost nothing? He had so many questions, so many fears, and he, like the others understood why their teacher had said what he said, why he'd done what he'd done.

As Muffy and Francine met up in her bedroom to flip through ash-covered tabloid magazines from before the eruptions, they silently were on the same thought path. Could they kill themselves? Could this disaster ever drive them to do such a thing? They both felt this would end eventually. It had to. The eruptions would stop, the ash would clear, and life would go on. That was their thought on the situation. But what if the negativity held? The headlines about people dying in-mass were becoming so common they were now numb to them. The politicians without answers, the analysts with the same vague answers, and the protestors begging politicians and scientists to make it all stop were old too. The girls were numb. Everyone was numb.

As they flipped their magazines, and as Brain read his books, and as their other classmates went about their afternoon activities, the weight of their teacher's suicide lay on their shoulders. Their thoughts kept returning to that burning question—Would I ever kill myself? None of them had an answer yet, but they knew that when that one big thing happened that made them decide it wasn't worth it anymore, their answer would be an unargued Yes.


	8. Chapter 8

CHAPTER EIGHT

Something wasn't right. As Arthur rose up from the mega mattress, he was well aware of his throbbing headache and a beeping sound from the den.

It was the carbon monoxide detector.

Arthur tried to get Kate awake, then DW, but only his parents stirred as Arthur grew more frantic. Jane was able to crawl to the backdoor and open it, letting frigid air, ash, and snow into the kitchen. David tried helping Arthur in getting his sisters awake, but neither thought they were breathing.

Finally Jane helped and they decided to pull the unconscious girls outside. Kate went first, then DW.

They lay side by side on the patio, their faces turned up towards the dark sky. Arthur saw the clock and realized it was eight o'clock. He couldn't remember if it was night or day without the sun, but he figured it must be night, that the deadly carbon monoxide must've started building the moment they entered the room.

He looked to his sisters, David over Kate and Jane over DW, and he knew they weren't going to wake up. DW looked blue in the dim light coming from the security light at the corner of the house. It was covered in an ashy ice that made the light seem unnatural, but Arthur knew blue when he saw it, and DW was that bluish color of death.

Kate was no better. She looked almost white in the ashy snow, especially when a cold flake of snow would hit her cheek. David would try to brush it away in between his attempts at CPR, but Arthur knew he couldn't save her. The snow didn't even attempt to melt. It just sat there until he brushed it away.

Arthur finally called the fire department, but it was no use. The gas was fixed by the fire department with the help of a city utility van, but there was nothing they could do for the girls except take them away in an ambulance, both of them strapped to respective gurneys and covered in a grey sheet, as white was no long a color clothes could achieve, with or without bleach.

It was ten o'clock at night by the time they left, but Arthur decided he couldn't stay around. He called the Baxter household, where the phone rang and rang. He thought they were asleep, but he couldn't be sure. Bitzi might've been helping Buster with a treatment or off at the office, and if she'd walked to the office, she would've pulled Buster behind her in a sled and made him go with her. She didn't want him alone anymore, ever, so she was always with him.

As Arthur tried to call again, he heard the doorbell ring and his father shuffle like a zombie to answer it. Then he heard the sobs, and he expected a neighbor to be there, somehow hearing the news.

But when she came in, he knew it was Bitzi. She walked up to Arthur but couldn't speak. She sank beside him as Arthur held the ringing line in his hand. He couldn't believe it—his only siblings and his best friend all in one night. He felt cold and numb, but one thought was there already—Why didn't the carbon monoxide take me?


	9. Chapter 9

CHAPTER NINE

 _Two Months Later_

School was cancelled. There was no way for the students to navigate the streets in subzero temperatures safely with so much ice and ash around, so the district decided to cancel school, effective immediately and lasting indefinitely. Besides, the power was on and off as transformers began to feel the effects of the ash and ice.

That was the new problem, not the eruptions that sent out more ash every two to three weeks, but what that ash was doing to the world. A town in Texas was cemented in after a rain storm caused the ash to stick like glue, but that was in the beginning. It was something that still happened whenever it rained, but now it was too cold for that.

But it wasn't the cold mixing with the ash that was causing the problems. It was the ash itself. Scientists were discovering that all over the world, no matter how far you got away from the eruption, the ash had corrosive tendencies. Even in tiny doses. And there was no such thing as a tiny dose, as even Australia now faced its coldest temperatures for a summer season in recorded history. There was little or no sunshine wherever you went, and that meant ash, which meant the ash would come down on its own or in rain, and it covered everything.

Cancer was becoming the new asthma. Now instead of not being to breathe, you were sometimes struck with swollen glands and other knots that many thought could be bubonic plague, the Black Death, striking despite many fleas and other creatures of that type succumbing to the cold. No, these knots were cancer. Ash and toxins that entered the body caused reaction there, but the most common form was skin cancer.

Arthur and the others noticed less and less people going to school. DW, Kate, and Buster died the same night, the girls from carbon monoxide poisoning and Buster from a massive asthma attack, but Maria had passed a few weeks later. An autopsy was performed, as she had died in her sleep, and doctors found skin cancer all over her body, cancer that had ultimately spread to other places. In the end, a tumor near her heart caused a blood clot that broke off, giving her a stroke in the middle of the night.

The next cancer death, a teacher from the eighth grade, was something people knew about and expected. She had collapsed not long after Maria's death during a lesson, and while many thought she'd had a stroke, a CT scan revealed a tumor the size of a golf ball in her brain. Several more of various sizes were located all over her body, and she refused treatment.

In fact, all cancer treatment had seemingly stopped as more and more people fell to the disease. No one was immune to it (the local death immediately following the teacher's in Elwood City was a popular city councilman and best friend of the town's mayor. Several senators died days later), and there was nothing anyone could do to prevent exposure to the carcinogens causing the problem—the substances within the ash.

People had so much more to worry about now as people with breathing issues died at rates two to three times higher than before depending on where you lived. The northern U.S. saw ten to fifteen thousand daily, double that in cities like Chicago and New York City, while the southern U.S. didn't fare much better, with a seven thousand average that was higher in cities like Birmingham and Atlanta. Now people were dying from cancer at similar rates—five thousand daily in smaller areas, ten to fifteen, even as high as twenty thousand, in larger municipalities.

The next leading cause of death was suicide as people decided they couldn't take it anymore. The darkness, dying, and death weighed on everyone, but some people were more fragile than others. The striking cold (the average daily high in Elwood City was now less than twenty degrees Fahrenheit) and seclusion (as schools and many businesses shut down) helped no one, and now the hunger was beginning as supplies dwindled, costs rose, and people lost access to the things they needed to live.

Everything was so bleak, so abysmal, that even children were thinking of ways to kill themselves. Tommy and Timmy Tibble walked outside wearing nothing but a t-shirt and a pair of shorts. They were found a few hours later huddled under a dim streetlight frozen solid, both of them dead from breathing in unfiltered, ash-filled air because they'd left their masks at home. They were nine, but children younger than them were doing the same thing. Or they wouldn't drink for days or they'd choke themselves. One four-year-old killed his infant brother by smothering him before doing the same to himself.

People were hurting, and as radio broadcasts continued, everyone was beginning to realize that nothing was going to change anytime soon. There was no solution to this except for the ash to go away. But added eruptions only dragged out the process longer and added more darkness, more death, to the planet. Scientists were debating on ways to speed it up using artificial tanks of oil or giant fans, anything to pull the ash down or blow it around more. But people were pessimistic, especially when they decided oil would freeze up just like everything else and a fan couldn't do much more than the atmosphere itself because none could blow hard enough or fast enough.

And as more people died because of the various causes available to take their lives, more and more people decided their best option was to speed up the process however they saw fit, and entire families began to fall as people gave up.


	10. Chapter 10

CHAPTER TEN

Arthur couldn't stand being in his house any longer. It was ten below at one in the afternoon outside, but he had to go for a walk. He ended up at Buster's house and went to the door. Not seeing his classmates made him forget that his friend was one of those gone.

Bitzi opened the door and Arthur reeled back in shock. Her face was half blackened by a melanoma spreading across her face. She noticed his reaction and nodded with a cold smile:

"I have cancer now, from the ash. I'll be joining Buster soon, probably within the next few days. It's everywhere," she said, pointing to her feet. Her left leg was wrapped with various throws Arthur knew she had. Most of them were Christmasy with green trees and brown reindeer with red noses, but that wasn't the striking part. Her foot was several times larger than it should be. Bitzi almost chuckled, "The tumor there is the worst, the most painful. I asked them to cut it off, but they refused treatment. The hospital is for the dead now, not the living."

Arthur thought back to the night when his sisters died. He thought they'd go in another ambulance themselves. He'd heard about treatments for the poisoning, usually oxygen treatments, sometimes in large machines called iron lungs if the patient was bad enough. Instead he and his parents weren't given any oxygen outside. They were encouraged to stay in another room that was far from outside walls and breathe without a mask. They had refused.

Arthur snapped back to the present. He looked Bitzi over, taking in this last sight of her. Then he waved and began to walk away. Bitzi waved back, and if it weren't for the mask, ash, and crazy Christmas blanket cover, you'd think she was happily seeing him off.

Arthur walked around town, not caring how cold he got. He wanted to check on everyone he'd gone to school with, students and their parents.

The Lundgren's were gone for good, a neighbor saying they were trying their chances further south. Arthur doubted they'd make it far now that cars couldn't work in the ash and trains were always too icy to function.

Catherine had come home from college when she got cancer, but now she and Francine were the only ones left. Oliver had a heart attack and Laverne suffered from a deadly asthma attack, her first and only in her lifetime.

Muffy's family was doing okay, but Bailey now had cancer and was expected to die soon.

Binky's family was wiped out by a house fire when their fireplace malfunctioned because of ash buildup, not from the burning logs but from a volcanic ash backup in the chimney.

Brain's father was the only one left…technically. Arthur found him hanging outside the house, his body having been there for days.

Sue Ellen's family was doing okay, but Arthur couldn't help but notice a black mark on Mrs. Armstrong's cheek, probably the start of a melanoma like Bitzi's.

Arthur had to go home then, escape from the home, but he figured that everyone else was gone. And soon he'd be gone too for whatever reason. That's what this supervolcano did, take people, and he was glad he wouldn't have to live much longer to see it take everyone else.

Arthur was unfortunately right. Though scientists thought a supervolcanic eruption would be an inconvenience lasting only a few months, Mother Nature proved once again that she was the masterful one that knew all. Cancer, breathing problems, and starvation were the main ways people went, and no one lasted past six months. No one had enough resources as power failed, as Prepers had decided to use forms of power that no longer were viable—solar couldn't work because there was no sun, and wind power proved inefficient as the ash stifled the atmosphere, reducing the number of weather events to nil, including win.

What the humans couldn't realize was what would come next. They weren't the only species on the planet, and many things persevered. After two years, the sun began to peek out in places like Hawaii and Australia, places far from the Yellowstone eruption, and plants immediately took over the landscape. Some animals remained too, flourishing in this new world. While some couldn't handle the toxic ash very well, many species learned to adapt, and soon they recovered.

It took more than five years for the ash to completely clear, and it took centuries for the world's species to recover, but they eventually did. While the human race perished, the world would still be biodiverse, and it eventually became a beautiful place to live again.

~End

A/N: Whoa, Chrys got dark again. Well, what did you all expect from a Disasters series fic? I feel this is only a semi-accurate rendition of what would go down if the Yellowstone Supervolcano erupted, because I think things would be livable until the Earth could repair itself, as it would using the methods I mentioned (oceans and other bodies of water absorbing the ash, storms pushing the ash elsewhere while rain and snow would drive it down, etc.). But I got dark and this is how it ended, and while it's semi-accurate that people could get cancer, the starvation and respiratory issues are the most accurate.

In short, I'm not changing this because I do like it. I plan to continue my series, but we'll have to see which disaster I go after next. If you have any ideas, please let me know.

Updated note: Looks like I flubbed my Chapter 10 file and had to resubmit it. Thanks for letting me know I messed up, and please let me know if you see any errors elsewhere. I'd love the feedback:)


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